Environment

Molson Coors Brewing Company earlier this year entered into a strategic collaboration with Circle of Blue in support of their mutual and long-term commitment to protecting global fresh water supplies. The collaboration's first initiative was to launch an independent survey of public awareness and concern for fresh water issues in 25 countries around the world, with a deeper evaluation of attitudes about fresh water conservation in a smaller subset of seven countries.

Since President Obama’s November 2008 election victory, CRO Magazine publisher Jay Whitehead and Amit Chatterjee, CEO of environmental and energy management software company Hara, have agreed that the U.S. is moving quickly toward pricing a ton of CO2 emissions, creating an urgent need for a how-to-compete guide for corporate leaders.  So the pair collaborated on the first CO2-centric corporate competitive roadmap, The Post-Carbon Economy, the First Edition of which appears in August (SOFICO Books, www.postcarboneconomybook.com). 

This second-annual CRO’s Responsible CEO of the Year Award is different than any other business honor. First, it recognizes individual CEO expertise in articulating the common good and then convincing thousands of others to make a good business out of it. Second, it’s a trophy for leadership in progress, because perfection in Corporate Responsibility is a goal that’s always moving just beyond our grasp. And third, it reflects the professional chauvinism of the corporate responsibility-obsessed editorial team at CRO Magazine, the only publication solely focused on the four professional domains in Corporate Responsibility—GRC, sustainability, CSR and philanthropy.

Report shows progress in adopting sustainable campus and endowment practices

The College Sustainability Report Card, now in its third year, found that 66% of the 191 schools it evaluated over the last two years improved their overall sustainability grade, “in part reflecting concern about climate change and the realities of rising oil and gas prices.”

The report, produced by the nonprofit Sustainable Endowments Institute in Cambridge, Mass., this year looks at 300 colleges that together hold more than 90 percent of all university endowments.

Embedding eco-consciousness starts with measuring environmental impact and following market trends, regulations

Like it or not, the carbon-constrained economy is coming. It’s an economy where marketplace forces will demand that companies minimize their greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in response to the global climate change issue. It’s an economy where a company’s carbon footprint and GHG emissions profile will have a significant impact on its bottom line. And it’s an economy where companies that apply carbon-savvy thinking to their business decisions will have a clear competitive advantage over those that don’t.

Looking ‘Upstream,’ Waste Management bulks up on materials management

Every corporate board is—or should be—focused on how to minimize its environmental footprint, and waste-solutions provider Waste Management, the largest recycling outfit in North America, is in the mix when it comes to many of those discussions and consultations.

A public company with $13.3 billion in revenue last year, Waste Management is a power in waste-to-energy production, materials management, recycling and trash hauling.

Jim Cramer, the sometimes-trash-talking host of CNBC’s “Mad Money,” recently termed Waste Management CEO David Steiner, who has led the company since 2004, “the most pro-shareholder guy I know” among CEOs outside the oil and gas industry, adding that Waste Management is “a really good company” with lots of financial clout.

Product supplier offers small businesses, consumers gift cards for old equipment

Office Depot recently launched an electronics trade-in system that pays customers to recycle their old small to medium-size electronics. The project is powered by services and product-support provider NEW Customer Service Cos. and is intended to both help the environment and people and businesses affected by the economic downturn, the company said.

Sustainable website management part of technology company's larger green program

As millions of tennis fans visit the U.S. Open tennis tournament website in the next two weeks to check on the fates of Venus Williams or Rafael Nadal, IBM is operating the site with 54 fewer servers than it did two years ago, in an efficiency push reflected in the company’s larger green initiatives.

New index tracks alternative energy, water, waste-management businesses

Institutional and retail investors tracking the performance of the global environmental technologies market can access a new tool to benchmark that sector.

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FTSE Group introduced its Environmental Opportunities All-Share Index, which includes 450 companies involved in alternative energy, water and waste-management businesses.

In Corporate Responsibility briefing, tech firm also says it focuses on energy efficiency

IBM considers the “say on pay” trend “very interesting,” but feels “very comfortable” with its current performance-based system, an official said. However, speaking at an IBM briefing for analysts about its Corporate Responsibility (CR) efforts June 13, Rich Calo, the company’s Vice President, Human Resources, said IBM still supports its decades-long practice of executive compensation based on performance.